1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is directed generally to a method and apparatus for tracking the lifecycle of items and, more particularly, to a inventory tracking system and method.
2. Description of the Background
Inventory tracking is necessary in order to assess the location of items and goods that may be reused, purchased, sold, disposed of, or otherwise transferred. Inventory tracking is particularly necessary if the goods or items to be tracked may be subject to certain laws or other regulations, such as environmental and/or hazardous waste regulations. Thus, for example, hazardous and/or non-biodegradable materials may be assessed with a particular need for inventory tracking.
Items having a particular need for tracking may provide other requirements not applicable in certain inventory tracking situations. For example, in the tracking of non-biodegradable materials, certain portions of a device may be biodegradable, or may be reclaimable, and it may be useful to note those portions of a given material as such. Further, certain types of inventory that are assessed with a particular need for inventory tracking may be reconditionable, and/or redeployable. It may thus also be useful to track the ability to recondition, and/or the ability to redeploy, certain inventory items or components.
Inventory tracking systems available at the present do not provide for the strict tracking and auditing functionality, necessary for items having a particular need to be tracked and inventoried. Inability to reliably retrieve such information may lead to legal exposure for generators or disposing parties. Further, present inventory tracking systems do not allow for differentiation between certain items, or between certain parts of certain items, which may be resellable, reconditionable, or redeployable. Thus, present inventory systems do not provide an adequate audit trail to prevent legal exposure resulting from failure to track the disposal, reconditioning or redevelopment of certain items which are subject to legal regulations. Further, present inventory systems do not track the original owner and document the transfer of ownership.
For example, the disposition of hazardous waste materials is subject to very strict laws. Often those disposing of such hazardous materials hire disposal companies to handle the disposal, and hence are not privy to the final location or final disposition of the hazardous materials. Thus, an inventory tracking system which allows for the specific tracking of a disposition (including, but not limited to, whether those goods have been stored, resold, demanufactured redeployed, or reconditioned) of all items entered into the system, is necessary but not available in the present art.
Present inventory and tracking systems generally have a lack of tracking and reporting for data, software, and/or hardware eradication in one program. Further, there is generally a lack of registry information recovery when dealing with software applications, particularly for computers that have experienced an fdisk and format command.
Further, for items designated as being suitable for being resold, redeployed, or reconditioned, a mechanism may be needed wherein such items may be resold, reconditioned, or redeployed. Such a mechanism might include auctions, wherein bids are submitted for an available item, and the highest bidder wins the opportunity to purchase the item for the bid amount. An inventory tracking system that tracks the status of all items within the inventory tracking system, and tracks separately, but in communication with, the inventory tracking system, auction items, items for sale, items destroyed, and/or reconditioned items would provide a unique and efficient mechanism of tracking goods, making goods available for sale, and disposing of goods, in a single system.
Thus, the need exists for an inventory tracking system that tracks and audits the status of all items within the inventory tracking system, including disposed items, and that tracks separately, but in communication with the inventory tracking system, auction items, items for sale, items destroyed and/or reconditioned items.